Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 658

Here are the questions to this week's Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (June 17th) to share your answers. See you there! 

1. June 17th, 1994 was the day of the infamous O.J. Simpson car chase. What were you doing in 1994? I'm guessing somebody is going to tell me they weren't born yet but that's part of the fun of the Hodgepodge. Lots of generations are represented here. 

2. What's your favorite summer salad that isn't the traditional tossed green lettuce kind of salad? Do you like fresh fruit in a salad (other than in a fruit salad of course)?

3. Is chivalry dead? Should it be? 

4. Would you rather spend a week of your summer vacation in Hawaii or Alaska? Have you ever been to either? Are they two places you really would like to see? How do you feel about 'Hawaiian pizza' aka pineapple on a pizza? Have you ever eaten Baked Alaska? 

5. World Cup play is happening now...are you interested? Watching any matches? Did you or your children play soccer/futbol? There are eleven US cities hosting matches-

-Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York with the stadium in NJ, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle

along with  three cities in Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey)

and two in Canada (Toronto and Vancouver)-

You get free tickets to one of these matches. Which city do you choose? Tell us why. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Always Just One More Thing

July 9th. Already? This summer has been a whirlwind of activity, but I'm currently looking at a little bit of blank space on the calendar and am determined to regroup here on the blog. It's not a lot of blank space, but it's the most I've had since Easter (I know!!) so I'll take it.

Also, this should be two posts I'm sure but you know how I do things here, right?

The problem is basically this-I tell myself I'll do just one little thing before I hop on here to write, and then there is always one more little thing that follows. Then another and another and before you know it the clock reads 9 PM and I haven't written word one.

Today it started with the frig. We've had a lot of house guests recently and everyone is so great about helping in the kitchen and bringing dishes to add to the meals, but my frig! Yikes! I tell people to just 'put that leftover wherever you can find space' so there are bottles and plastic containers and foil wrapped ? tucked on every shelf. The whole thing needs to be hosed down which is what I started doing first thing this morning.

I lost my way when I went to get something out of the dryer that needed a hanger and then I ran downstairs for 'just a minute' to put another something in a closet but the closet looked a little like my frig so I thought 'let me just sort out this closet while I'm looking at it'.

Also brewing in the back of my brain was the fact that I still hadn't showered, washed my hair, finished my grocery list, shopped for said groceries, and while I'm out stop at the post office, drop the tablecloth at the dry cleaners, pick up a prescription from the drug store, and...and...and...

There is always just one more thing, isn't there?

The frig is mostly cleaned out. Groceries are purchased. Dinner was put in the crockpot. All the laundry is done (whoohoo!). Bills were paid. A package mailed. A tablecloth left with the cleaners in town. A prescription collected. A torturous thirty minutes was spent on the phone with an internet business customer service agent trying to sort out a charge on our credit card, but problem solved so calling that a win! And now I'm sort of writing about it so I guess I can check that box too.

What did everyone do on the 4th? Yep. Gonna just abruptly change topic but that's how my Mondays seem to roll. My brother and sister-in law got to town the night before,  just in time for a boat ride and a sunset swim as the sky turned my favorite shade of pink.

Daughter2 and her fiance were also in the house (and on the boat) and then my sister who lives in a nearby town came to spend the holiday with us. Also her hubs and my niece and her boyfriend so a full house. 

We decided it was too hot to grill so I made slaw and did pulled pork in my crockpot. Daughter2 made the beans, my sister made a delicious spinach pasta salad, and there was watermelon because that's the law on the 4th of July. You needed to know what we ate, didn't you? 

We hung out in the water most of the day, and hubs even managed a boat ride with some of our crew before dinner. We played cornhole and sang happy birthday to my brother-in-law and enjoyed these strawberry cupcakes (click for recipe) which everyone loved. Our across the water neighbor always puts on a fantastic fireworks show and this year was no exception.  

Boats come from around the lake and line up at the mouth of our cove to watch, and when a firework is particularly large or beautiful all the boaters honk. So much fun! Hubs, the fiance, and my niece's boyfriend watched while floating on water saddles in front of our dock, but the rest of us were in comfy chairs on the dock and around the firepit. 

Thursday the fiance worked so Daughter2 hung out with us and enjoyed spending time with her aunt and uncle. Here's a picture to prove they were here-ha! I just couldn't be bothered with my camera with so much going on this weekend, although I think that's when you're supposed to bother with your camera. I'm relying on everyone else to snap pics and they do. 

Friday there was a little more boating and swimming (suffice it to say we were water rats all week long) then a nice dinner out at a local Italian restaurant. Not gonna lie...I've done a lot of cooking this summer and I do love to cook, but I also really enjoyed this meal that I did not prepare. 

Friday my sister and brother-in-law came back out for dinner at the lake, then took my brother and sister-in-law home with them for a couple of days. We had a lovely break in the weather on Saturday which was the perfect excuse to lounge on the porch in yoga pants, watch some World Cup, and play Monopoly- the London version of course because England!! Whoohoo!!

And now I think you're up to speed on all the mundane except I forgot to mention the scrumptious blueberry pancakes Daughter2 prepared for us on Sunday. I never make pancakes so this was a real treat for everyone. 

Plus she's adorable and should definitely have her own cooking show. She's a wonderful baker and has no trouble cracking eggs while carrying on a conversation.

What would I blog about if I didn't talk weather and what was on our menu?
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At least they're both red white and blue

Almost as soon as our company left on Saturday another co-worker of my hubs phoned to see if we wanted to meet them at a nearby Irish pub to watch the World Cup. Now a few years ago I would have turned to my husband and said, "What is World Cup?" but I've lived in England and I know better now. Because in England life stands still for World Cup. Well in an insane flag covered, jersey wearing, song singing kind of standing still way. On the other side of the pond World Cup fever makes people slightly crazy.

Here's a little story-the first year we lived in the UK we went to a local Italian restaurant for dinner during World Cup. This particular restaurant was always loud and packed and very lively and so we were slightly surprised to walk in and discover we were the only people in the place. We saw all of the staff in a back corner huddled around a tiny little TV set they had rigged up so they could watch Italy play. We sat down and my daughter ordered some sort of pasta dish. The owner came over with her food and without removing his eyes from the TV screen for even a split second he asked if she'd like Parmesan cheese on her dish. She clearly replied, "No thank you" and again, without ever taking his eyes off of the TV he proceeded to grate out a literal mountain of cheese on top of her food. We all kind of sat there with our jaws dropped until hubs finally came to and said, 'Uh, that's plenty.' Note to selves-eat at home during World Cup. Or head to a pub that is showing the game but if you do be prepared for some singing and some beer splashing and a little trash talking. Or maybe a lot of trash talking. Oh it is fun! Think about it...practically the entire country is cheering for a single team. That's a lot of spirit.

So anyway, we met friends in the Irish Pub Saturday afternoon and the friend's wife is from England and hubs wore his England shirt. I declared it too hot and humid to wear mine so went like Switzerland and was neutral in navy and white. The pub was packed and about three quarters of the crowd was American and maybe one quarter hailed from the UK. The atmosphere was a lot like the pubs at home in that there were men in jerseys with their England flags wrapped around their shoulders, there was singing and there was beer splashing and there was more than a little trash talking. In fact, we hadn't been there five minutes when a charming American man came over to the table and mooned the Brits. Believe me, there is not enough beer in all of Great Britain to remove that image from my head. Not pretty. At all.

We were snatched up by the British tables when they saw hubs shirt and we were sorta rooting for England anyway because its so huge over there you kind of get caught up in it all. Plus I love how smooth the coach of the England team looks in his suit and ultra cool eye ware.

No sweatsuit and beer belly for Fabio Capello. With a name like that he was born to be a footballer. You may in fact be surprised to learn that I know who almost all the England players are and I might also know more than a little bit about their personal lives too. They are huge celebs in the UK and you read about them on a regular basis in every magazine and newspaper published. I've read details of Wayne Rooney's wedding, Ashely Cole's infidelities, Steven Gerrards arrest after a brawl in Liverpool, and Frank Lampards super high IQ test results. I couldn't tell you a single player on the US team.

Until Saturday.

That's when my daughter texted me (yes indeed my girls were watching World Cup play) to say that two of the US mid field players were from her teeny tiny university and that was kind of exiting so I wavered. I mean I never root for the US to lose...I just didn't want England to lose either. Sigh. I think I'm far too emotional for professional sports. What do you think?

Anyway, the match ended in a tie which just does not feel right. Imagine an NFL playoff game ending in a tie prior to the Superbowl. In World Cup play teams get 0 points for losing, 1 point for a tie, and 3 points for a win so the top team at the end of the whole tournament is the one with the most points. Once they get past this first group round of play ties will be settled with penalty shoot outs. And I'm sure FIFA officials are choking on their ale as they read my scoring summary but I'm breaking it down here for the masses who just want to understand how a huge match can end in a tie. At least I didn't call it a game. Match is the correct lingo. You're welcome. And also, I'm pretty sure FIFA officials aren't reading my blog.

While a tie does seem odd I was kind of thrilled because that cutie who scored the goal for USA is in fact one of the two players who attended my daughter's university so Go USA. Except Yay Eng-a-land too.

And in case you aren't confused enough, Clint Dempsey, the player who scored the goal for the US and plays on the US National Team? Yeah, well his regular club is Fulham. That's in England. A lot of the US team play for clubs in England. Or Germany. Or Spain. Or places other than the US. Like I said, it's complicated. But its exciting too. And sitting in an Irish Pub on a sunny Saturday afternoon surrounded by the England flag and the sounds of grown men singing Eng-a-land...well, we may just have felt right at home.